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Sunday, January 08, 2006
Rebels strip Leyte police of guns
By Mia E. Abellana
CEBU CITY -- About 100 suspected communist rebels surrounded a town police station in Leyte and ran off with their cache of firearms and personal belongings Friday night. No one was hurt and not a single shot was fired.
But in light of the attacks in Leyte and Masbate, the Cebu Provincial Police Office has raised its alert level.
Only six policemen were present at the Albuera Police Station in Leyte when the power went off throughout the whole town at 7 p.m.
About 15 minutes later, two vans and a multicab arrived with heavily armed men onboard. The policemen were taken by surprise and were unable to fight back.
SPO2 Diosdado Patellero and PO1 Jackson Seville were hogtied, while SPO1 Jaime Catubas, PO1 Bobby Catugas and radio operator SPO1 Teodulo Jurda, who were eating their supper in the police station's kitchen, managed to slip out.
The three hid in the darkness as several men entered the police station and helped themselves to the lockers.
There were conflicting reports as to where police chief, Senior Insp. Rodolfo Lomot, was at the time.
SPO1 Constantino Torre of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in Eastern Visayas said Lomot had left for Ormoc City that night, while a policeman assigned at the Albuera Police Station said the police chief was outside the police station that time.
Outnumbered
The policeman, who refused to give his name, told Sun.Star Cebu that they were all placed under investigation.
He said they received reports last month about a planned attack and that they were on red alert.
Despite being on their toes, they were no match for more than a hundred men, he said.
Central Command spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jefferson Omandam, however, said there were fewer than a hundred rebels, believed to be under the NPA's Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee.
The policeman said only 11 policemen were assigned in Albuera, excluding the police chief, and that they were divided into two 24-hour shifts.
They thought the attack was to be carried out in December because the New People's Army celebrates its anniversary every December 26.
The operation was apparently well planned.
The policeman said the rebels had control over the town's power that night.
Omandam, however, said they were still investigating if the blackout that hit the town was part of the rebel operation or a mere coincidence.
Tires on fire
The policeman narrated that when the rebels entered the police station, one of them ordered someone through radio to turn on the power and the lights were immediately switched on.
The rebels, armed with M16s, M14s and at least three .60 machineguns, reportedly told the two hogtied cops they were only after the firearms in the police station.
After they helped themselves to 19 M16 rifles, nine .38 revolvers and Patellero's .40 machine gun, they heard one of the rebels say, "Pawng balik (Turn it off)."
Aside from the firearms, they also reportedly took cell phones, chargers, and other belongings stocked in the lockers.
They had forces blocking the main highway, keeping people from entering the town.
The boundary to Ormoc City is five kilometers away, while the last barangay leading to Baybay, Leyte is 25 kilometers off.
Residents in Sitio Cayag-ang, Barangay San Pedro, the last barangay before reaching Baybay, later told them they were alarmed at first when armed men and women blocked the roads leading to Albuera, with vans and tires set on fire.
2 hours
However, they assured the panicked residents that they were from the army and that they were just conducting operations.
They also learned that heavily armed men were also roaming the town proper during the blackout.
The police station is beside the Albuera Municipal Hall right in front of the highway. The station, which is as big as a classroom of 60 pupils, has no gate.
It took soldiers from the army's 19th Infantry Battalion more than two hours to reach Albuera, as they are based near Ormoc City.
Omandam said two platoons and an armored tank from the 19th IB under Major Louie Dagoy have been deployed to track down the rebels in Albuera's mountain barangays Sigunon and Balugo.
The 43rd IB based in Southern Leyte has also been tasked to block the area leading to the province.
Omandam said Albuera was not a known stronghold of the NPA, classified only under the "threatened type."
He said, though, this was no reason for policemen not to be alert.
No displays
The incident should serve as a lesson to the police and military not to "unnecessarily display" their firearms so that the rebels would not know their strength, Omandam said.
Also last Friday, five police officers and three civilians were killed in Claveria, Masbate after NPA rebels ambushed them.
The three slain civilians were reportedly truck drivers. (Sun.Star Cebu)
(January 8, 2006 issue)
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